Adi Talwar
The Department of City Planning hosted the second Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan (AAMUP) meeting at the Fort Greene Council Grace Agard Harewood Neighborhood Senior Center on April 16.
The plan could deliver 4,600 new apartments and other investments in Central Brooklyn. But passage by City Council may involve negotiations to increase the amount—and affordability—of housing at publicly owned sites.
Only after a local councilmember’s push did landlord Avanath meet with the tenant group at 38 Sixth Ave., but progress has come slowly, and tenants scorned a proposed partial rent abatement as insufficient.
The developer and MTA have come to agreement on the platform needed for three towers, but Greenland USA won’t proceed without a key tax break. As Empire State Development floats proposals, watchdogs warn of delays.
The contracts underlying the rezonings suggest that both the affordable housing nonprofits and Brooklyn Councilmember Crystal Hudson could have acted earlier to ensure that the key information came out.
Brooklyn Councilmember Crystal Hudson claimed victory after two April rezonings yielded 35 percent affordable housing. But details on non-profit partners and anti-displacement commitments were revealed only after repeated inquiries. Even now, formal documents remain under wraps.
A 2005 media event promised more affordability than what’s been produced. The next mayor may face tough decisions, as 876 more income-linked units must be built in four years.
Industry City’s ‘Plan for 20,000 Jobs’ included jobs that already exist, jobs that it expected tenant companies to generate, and jobs that murky projections said would be spurred off site.
From the Amazon MOU to the BAM site, alluring menus of public benefits are often dangled as the payoff for large subsidies and lucrative development rights. The project formerly known as Atlantic Yards demonstrates that the devil is in the delivery.
Part 1 in our series on the Democratic candidates for attorney general looks at Leecia Eve. Daughter of a prominent pol, and a one-time aide to Biden, Clinton and Cuomo, she is making her second run at her own elected office.
The emails show a developer scripting quotes from a grateful new tenant; a mayoral aide transforming a corporate press release into a governmental statement; and a lack of support from affordable housing advocates who once strongly backed a Brooklyn megaproject.
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